Post '91 Piracy
In the years immediately after the '91 War there was an explosion of piracy the world over, even in the developed world. By 2013 this piracy had largely been stamped out as world navies recovered from their losses in 1991. Nevertheless known acts of piracy in this period is estimated to have cost £18 trillion. A Ripe Environment The maritime situation the world over was ripe for piracy after 1991. Many of the world's major navies had been savaged by the fighting in the '91 War suffering immense losses particularly amongst capital ships. The French Navy alone lost 65% of its surface fleet in the five days of fighting. Therefore immense areas of ocean no longer had adequate naval cover. In the North Sea and North Atlantic especially there was a void as the home fleet of Britain's Royal Navy waited to be shored up by vessels being drafted in from its commitments across the world. It was here that some of the most daring early acts of this new era of piracy began. With supplies of food and other essentials becoming more precious than gold many of the early pirates did not see themselves as criminals but rather desperate people just trying to survive. This contradicted western government's control of food and medical distrbution and as such these pirates were treated in the same way as looters on land and were dealt with accordingly. Royal and French Navy Captain's were given wide reaching powers to hand out justice. Often this was in the form of firing squads onboard the pirate ships or even the warship that captured them. By 1995 the nature of the piracy had changed to that of pure greed on behalf of the pirates themselves. By this time many of them had become highly organised and bribary and blackmail of officials to support their cause was rife. As well as hijacking ships, piracy was also extended by international law to the people trafficking ring especially in the trade of so-called "Clean Girls", women and girls from parts of Europe which were not suffering from the effects of radioactive fall-out. By the dawn of the 21st Century piracy in the North Atlantic and North Sea was eradicated as the Royal Navy recovered from its losses in 1991 and was now dominating the region. With the fall of the Republic of China and the collapse of the Soviet Union into the New Russian Empire the Far East was a hotbed of pirate activity and to an extent remains so today. Many of the early pirates were former naval officers and some even had ex-military vessels under their command. Of particular note was an incident in which the warlord Kai-Sen Olan actually acquired a Ming-class submarine for use as a pirate vessel. His reign of terror was short lived however as he and his crew were hunted down and sunk by the Royal Australian Navy's HMAS Freetown. The navies of the New Commonwealth provided the primary means of combatting the problem of piracy in the region thanks largely to its local members such as Singapore. Tackling the pirates required a large effort on the part of the New Commonwealth's military. With a zero tolerence approach the New Commonwealth often used aircraft to bomb pirate ships or bases. Pirate Hunters In this new era of piracy several naval officers made a name for themselves hunting down pirates. Among them was Cmdr. Tim Morley of [[HMS Princess|HMS Princess]]'' ''who was prevailant in the 1990s operating in the North Sea. Morley built up a reputation for being swift and decisive in his repsonse to the pirate threat. Category:Conflicts